#41 --- Following are some passages from Andrew Tomas' book, "ON THE SHORES OF ENDLESS WORLDS", pp. 160-163, 166-167:

 

"...And now a return to Asia. Even in this jet-age every Hindu is familiar with and usually believes in the legend of the Nagas, the 'serpents' which live in extensive underground palaces in the rocky Himalayas. It is believed that these creatures are able to fly in space and that they possess amazing magical powers and intelligence (i.e. or rather, 'cunning'). They are not too fond of nan if he is a curiosity seeker, explorer or mountaineer. According to the sacred tradition of the Hindus, the deep caverns of the Nagas contain fabulous treasures, illuminated by flashing precious stones. The subterranean abodes are known to be in certain parts of both the Himalayas and Tibet, particularly around the Lake of the great Nagas — Lake Manasarowar.”

    “...Nicholas Roerich and Alexandra David-Neel, the noted orientalist’s, both wrote of Gessar Khan’s prophecies: ‘I have many treasures but only upon the appointed day may I bestow them upon my people. When the legions of Northern Shambhala shall bring the spear of salvation, then shall I uncover the depths of the mountains.’

    In Sikkim Roerich was told of tunnels and giant caves that were used for storing ancient reliques. The mountain Kinchinjunga was so named because in Tibetan that means 'Five Treasures of the Great Snow.' According to the lamas: ‘the giant gate of this storehouse will one day ‘be opened’.

    In Karakoram Pass (altitude 6,000 meters) at the western end of the Himalayas, Nicholas Roerich was told by a guide: ‘ever we lowly people know that there are deep extensive underground vaults in which are gathered treasures from the beginning of the world..’ During his expedition Nicholas Roerich and his son Dr. George Roerich, professor of Oriental languages, obtained information from the lamaseries about hidden passages under the Dalai Lana’s palace, the Potala, and about a grotto under the main temple. He recorded the legend of the black stone of Shambhala which allegedly came from another planet:

    Helena Blavatsky spent at least three years in Tibet, Bhutan and Sikkim. Her encyclopedic books contain a wealth of data on Asiatic lore:

 

‘Along the ridge of Altyn Tagh whose soil no European foot has ever trodden so far, there exists a certain hamlet, lost in a deep gorge. It is a small cluster of houses, a hamlet rather than a monastery, with a poor-looking temple in it, with one old lama, a hermit, living near by to watch it. Pilgrims say that the subterranean galleries and halls under it contain a collection of books, the number of which according to the accounts given, is too large to find even in the British Museum.’

 

In another passage Blavatsky states: ‘Built deep in the bowels of the earth, the subterranean stores are secure, and as their entrances are concealed, there is little fear that anyone would discover them, even should several armies invade the sandy wastes'.

    All these records point to the startling possibility that a stellar race (or an ancient race who has since left this planet) not only planted priceless scientific artefacts in widely distributed underground storehouses, but also appointed trusted priests, monks and scholars to guard them from generation to generation. This heritage could have been handed down in an epoch the memory of which only mythology preserves.

    “...A few weeks later I decided to go to the Kulu Valley in the Western part of the Himalayas to visit Naggar, where Nicholas Roerich had lived. Since I had known him personally, the trip had a sentimental overtone. A narrow curving road, a precipice on one side with rocks and avalanches on the other, were not conductive to an enjoyable journey to this remote region near Ladakh and Tibet. The village of Naggar derives its name from “Naga,” the serpent. High up in the mountains lies Roerich’s estate. Having been an artist of note, his two-storied house contains a museum of his paintings.

    As I began my ascent on the mountain path, I saw a tall grey-haired sadhu (hermit), sitting by a mountain torrent. In his hand he held a cobra-shaped staff, which together with the markings on his forehead, signified that he was a devotee of Shiva. During the earlier, more peaceful times of the British Raj, these pilgrims would travel to the Lake of the Great Nagas, Lake Manasarowar, or to Mount Kailas, the abode of Shiva, in Tibetan territory. I climbed the mountain and reached the terrace on which the Roerich’s house was built. I spent at least an hour studying the master’s paintings. On the way back I admired the narrow valley and the looming snow-capped mountain ridges on both sides.

    The sadhu was still there. I thought, ‘A place called Naggar, a devotee of the Nagas with the cobra staff, if he does not know something about the Nagas, then who does? Knowing the ways of the East, I saluted the (so-called) 'holy' man with the folded hands in the fashion that is customary in India, and waited for the older man to speak first.

    'You like Roerich's paintings?' he said in fluent English.

    'Very much, indeed. Tell me, did you know the master in life?'

    'Yes, for many years. A great Rishi (inspired sage) and a friend of Nehru.'

    'Venerable sadhu, I believe in the Nagas. Have you seen them?' I asked diplomatically.

    'I am a poor sadhu, I know nothing, sahib. But about twenty years ago my yogi teacher went into the mountain kingdom of the Nagas. Bright light everywhere, big halls like Taj Mahal. Wonderful. The Nagas have many, may things and machines. They are clever, like Cambridge men, may be more clever, sahib,' the sadhu said with an apologetic smile. I could not help laughing.

    'Your yogi must have been a Rishi. Don't the Nagas destroy men (with) their sting?' I asked.

    'Yes... they do not like men who have no business near their palaces,' he replied. '...China lets in no more pilgrims, I can only go through the long holes but I am too old now,' he concluded.

    "...A description of the contents of a Tibetan subterranean museum is given by C.W. Leadbeater in his book 'The Masters and the Path.' Doubts as ti its authenticity may be partly justified not because the evidence itself is false but due to its naive presentation. Leadbeater claims that the museum contains statues of the different racial types that go back to the beginning of time, the profiles of continents with their changes, diagrams of ethnical and religious fusions, and much more besides. There are, he says, 'strange scripts from other worlds than ours'.

    "...In recapitulating this chapter it appears that a great similarity pervades the folklore of many countries no matter how far apart they are. Traditions of vaults, labyrinths, tunnels and buried treasures of remote antiquity are found in Crete, Egypt, Tibet, Angkor, India, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru..."

 

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#42 --- Chapter XV of W.B. Seabrook's book, "ADVENTURES IN ARABIA", tells of the mysterious caverns beneath the Temple-Shrine at Sheik-Adi, in Arabia, on Mount Lalash and within walking distance of Badri. The Yezidees use the Shrine to perform their mystical rites, as the following description by the author portrays:

 

    "...Through this door we entered a small square chamber, over which was the smaller of the two cone-shaped domes we had seen from outside, and under the dome was a sarcophagus-like tomb. At the right was a small closed door which led apparently into the bowels of the mountain, while at the left there was a open door leading to the dark chamber which I had peered into through the iron grating. We entered this chamber and found, beneath the larger of the two domes, another tomb, covered with a black pall, which, the priest told us, contained the remains of Sheik Adi, the founder of their sect. Beyond it another door led to a third inner chamber, where were stored many earthen jam of oil for the lamps.

    Mechmed Hamdi began telling me in French, which the priest could not understand, of the supposed cavern or crypt, hidden in the bowels of the mountain, beneath our feet, which he had wanted to see on former occasions. He said he had been refused on the ground that strangers could be permitted to enter it only by special order of the Mir Said-Beg himself. The closed door from the adjacent chamber was supposed to lead to it.

    Now that Said-Beg was here and seemed friendly disposed, we decided that it could do no harm at least to make the request. This Mechmed Hamdi did, in politist Arabic, suggesting that if the priest were not too greatly inconvenienced, and if Said-Beg graciously permitted it, we would like to ate the lower chamber.

    The priest seemed uncertain, but was willing that we should consult the Mir himself. And so we did when we went back and found him awaiting us in the upper courtyard.

    He told us we might descend the steps and look in, but that there was nothing to see --- "it was just a cave."  The priest procured a torch, and we reentered the temple, went through the little door, down a very old flight of damp stone steps, through a dungeon-like passage. At the foot of the steps where we stopped and stood, we found ourselves in a vaulted cavern, partly natural, it seamed, and partly hewn from the rock, and around a corner the sound of rushing water --- a sound which we had heard as a murmur in the upper temple, but had supposed to come from some near-by stream flowing down the mountainside.

    We could not see the whole of the cavern, or guess how far it extended. Its floor at the foot of the steps was covered with

water, which I guessed from the slope to be not more than ankle-deep, but the priest made it an excuse to deter us from going farther, declaring that there was no use getting our feet wet, since there was no more to see...

    Our partial penetration of it was interesting chiefly as establishing the fact that the whole temple edifice was constructed over subterranean caverns and streams and springs, some of the water of which was led into the pools we had seen in the temple and courtyard above. I learned later that the Yezidees believed these waters flowed by a subterranean river across all Arabia, underneath the desert, from the miraculous spring of Zem-Zem in Mecca. The fountain of Zem-Zem, like the Xaaba, with its black stone, was 'holy' to the ancient idolatrous Arabs many centuries before Mecca became the 'sacred' city of Islam. I found that the Yezidees regarded both fire and water as sacred elements.

    I would have given a month of my life to explore those caverns completely, and shall always wonder what I might have found around the angles of the rocks --- what other chambers, what alters, what relics of ancient or modern sacrifice. I have since had nightmare dreams of wading ankle-deep through the water at the foot of the stairs, of turning a corner and, beneath a great vault like a cathedral, coming upon a dreadful red, fiery alter --- but actually there and wide awake, the only thing which made me believe there might possibly be an altar of some sort in the cavern was the fact that there was no sign of one, or even an emplacement for an altar, in the temple above..."

 

(NOTE: the Yezidees, or Yezidis, are known as a devil-worshiping cult, suggesting that the underground 'altar' -- suspected of existing beneath the mountain -- may be used for human sacrifice. - Branton)

 

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#43 --- The following account appeared in an article by Vincent H. Gaddis, titled "Notes On Subterranean Shafts", on page 149 of the June, 1947 issue of AMAZING STORIES magazine:

 

"In a remote region of northern Tibet, Theodore Illion, playwright and world traveler, found a mysterious shaft and an underground city devoted to evil. He tells the story in his book, 'Darkness Over Tibet' (Rider & Co., London), which contains a detailed account of his observations and his almost-miraculous escape.

    "'The existence of an underground city in Tibet,' he writes, 'is occasionally hinted at by well-informed people in this forbidden country, although the stories are often extravagant and turn the city, which I succeeded in entering, into a "Mighty Underground Empire inhabited by millions of people." Tibet became somewhat more accessible as the years roll by, and I am confident that eventually other explorers will confirm my description of (this) city."

    "After receiving a letter of introduction and directions from a native Tibetan, the occultist, Illion found the city near the Sangpo Valley, twenty miles from the nearest village. It is known as the 'City of the Initiates,' and consists of seven underground buildings that drop at least fourteen stories below the surface, the tops of these subsurface constructions being level with the ground. They are built around a shaft, the top of which is surrounded by a wall four feet high and ten yards in diameter.

    The top of each building consists of a large glass skylight that is level with the surface and can be quickly covered. In front of each is a narrow staircase going down to a heavy door. The buildings are connected by tunnels, are easily kept warm, and practically earthquake-proof. Several hundred inhabitants are (or were) under the rule of a Prince Mani Rimpotche, a tall aged Tibetan with a white beard who speaks six languages, including English, and is remarkably well-informed about world affairs.

    Illion learned that only one other westerner had ever visited the city, and he had lived and died there under a Tibetan name. Life in the city resembles that of an ant-hill under the absolute control of its ruler. No one is permitted to leave the city without permission, and every action of its dwellers is rigidly regulated.

    The shaft itself appeared incredibly aged and very deep. Stones weighing up to twenty pounds were thrown in, but no sound reached Illion's ears. His inquiries revealed that only a few of the highest initiates knew what was at the bottom, and any other person who found out would die -- "there are such secrets" --- with death automatically following the discovery.

    This city is apparently the headquarters of a widespread secret organization with agents scattered throughout the Orient -- perhaps even in the west, according to additional information reaching the writer recently. Illion's discovery of the concealed evil nature of this city which poses as good, his refusal to become an agent, his escape and the uncanny nature of his pursuit are details that will be found in his book.

    It is hoped that additional observations may be made by travelers in future years. The fact that possession of this mysterious shaft is in evil hands is very suggestive, and it is one of the reasons why I feel that stories and doctrines coming out of Tibet and apparently devoted to mankind's best interests must be carefully considered before they are blindly accepted as truth."

 

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